Reflections on the Use of the Term "Feudalism"

Abstract

Claude Cahen urges historians to be more aware of the language they use in their research. The example Cahen discusses is the term feudalism. The indiscriminate use to the term, Cahen argues, has made it obscure and a category for a variety of phenomena, which can hardly be described, after a scrupulous study, as feudal. Moreover, Cahen points at the ways instinctive Eurocentrism has distorted history and suggests some ways to overcome it. Having examined the basic problems surrounding the term feudalism, Cahen turns to view the evolution of the institution of iqta in the Muslim Empire and compares it to Western feudalism. Cahen concludes that elements of feudalism can be found in both the East and the West, and that the variations between them stem from historical circumstances. In this way the article contributes to the blurring of the dichotomy of East and West.